South Korean credit card firms saw their combined net profit fall 5.3 percent in 2019 from a year earlier due mainly to increased loan-loss reserves and marketing spending, data showed Monday.

The combined net profit of eight card issuers, including Shinhan Card Co., Samsung Card Co. and KB Kookmin Card Co., came to 1.64 trillion won ($1.3 billion) in 2019, compared with 1.73 trillion won in 2018, according to the data released by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

The value of credit card purchases rose 5.6 percent on-year to 701 trillion won in 2019, according to the data.

The overall credit card delinquency ratio came to 1.43 percent at the end of 2019, down 0.05 percentage point from a year earlier, with that for card loans falling 0.15 percentage point to 2.29 percent, according to the FSS. (Yonhap)